Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: A Public Letter on Observance of Shemitta – part I

#287 – part I

Date and Place: 4 Nisan 5670 (1910), Yafo

Recipient and Background: This letter for the public was apparently published in the newspaper “Hacherut” on 4 Nisan 5760 (halfway through the Shemitta year). As is clear from the letter, Rav Kook became aware of farmers who “took liberties” that his rulings forbade, and there was concern this would continue or increase over the spring/summer.

Body: Beloved, respected brothers! I feel an obligation to express something to you about the way the obligations of Shemitta should be handled this year, which by tradition is the Shemitta year.

There is no need to make pronouncements about what you already know – due to the difficult situation, for quite some time, rabbinic leaders who are beloved by the nation and love it with their whole soul, worked hard and agreed to push themselves into a very small space (i.e., a difficult leniency) based on the correct approach to Torah that gives [great weight] to the need to protect the dear Yishuv. This is the way Israel approaches rendering rulings in the case of hugely important need, in this case giving rise to the customary system that uproots the laws by means of the sale of the land. True, many and great rabbis, some of the greatest Torah scholars, who also excel at holy fear of Hashem and are well respected, criticized those who gave this lenient ruling. However, just like those who rule strictly, those who rule leniently do so with a pure heart with intention to act for the “sake of Heaven,” for the benefit of the nation and the Land. They act with authority, and it is appropriate for them to act according to the holy path they believe in.

Those great rabbis who took the yoke of this ruling on their shoulders drew the line in a manner that we should distance ourselves as well as we can from violations of Torah-level law. In other words, the leniency is arranged to apply only to those actions for which there are strong grounds to believe that their obligation is of a Rabbinic level; only in such matters, difficult situations warrant us to uproot the laws based on the system of selling the fields.

If we embrace this approach of the righteous, as the great majority of people in the Yishuv have done, then we will maintain the mitzva in the form that it existed [based only] on Torah law, and our offspring will not forget the existence of the mitzva. According to the degree the Yishuv in the Holy Land will expand, the situation can increasingly improve in regard to the sanctity of Shemitta as well, for the benefit of our nation and holy land, as well as the comfort of the spirit and [national] pride, until we reach the point when a new light, of redemption, will spread over Zion.

With this perspective, we should know how bad and bitter are the actions of individuals, who act without proper thought, to remove all guardrails and violate the rules with which the leniency was formulated. They desecrate the sanctity of Shemitta by means of actions that are forbidden by Torah-level law, which we did not include in the lenient ruling that accompanies the selling of the Land. These people are ruining the whole arrangement, which is a bad disservice for our Yishuv, the “young nursing baby” that requires so much care and supervision. This is because people start saying that the Yishuv as a whole tramples matters of sanctity and that matters of religion, Torah and mitzvot are discarded. When such irresponsible behavior spreads, Heaven forbid, it perforce increases the inclination of all rabbinic leaders to disallow support for the leniency of removing the sanctity and fight to implement the standard laws of Shemitta. How can we expect them to see that under the guise of a leniency based on uprooting, a system that was undertaken with concern and carefulness, large abuses that disrespect the Torah unabashedly exist? Understand how serious this is, considering how unfeasible it is for the Yishuv to survive without the leniency, which must be done according to the law by expert rabbis who are known for Torah and fear of Hashem.

Lights of Unity

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

On Chanukah, we publicize the miracle of the victory over “the kingdom of Greece, which stood against Your people Israel to make them forget Your Torah and to have them transgress the laws of Your will.”

There are those who seek to project the struggle of the Maccabees from those days onto our time – viewing the conflict between the conservative approach and the new liberal approach, which rejects religion and tradition, as a direct continuation of the Maccabees’ wars against the Greeks. This perspective carries a tremendous danger of division and hatred, and could, G-d forbid, lead to a cultural war that could bring the worst of all – a civil war, Heaven forbid. Many ask themselves whether it is even possible to prevent a cultural war between religious and secular people. The answer is unequivocal – yes! Not only is it possible to prevent a war between Jews, but moreover, we can bring them to love one another. Therefore, a great responsibility rests upon us to prevent the stirring of the fires of division.

We must dispel the darkness by increasing the light, as Rav Kook, of blessed memory, said. Let us contemplate the Chanukah candles, which hint at lights of love and faith, lights of unity.

Currently, the forces acting today to make us forget the Torah and oppose the “laws of Your will” come, so to speak, in the name of progress and freedom, in the name of a developing and changing modern world. This destructive trend must be abolished by understanding that progress and freedom in no way contradict Judaism. On the contrary, our holy Torah views human freedom, as well as technological and scientific progress, as values that must be nurtured and encouraged, while simultaneously instilling in this world eternal spiritual and moral values that are unchanging. A human society cannot exist without the eternal Jewish values of justice and truth, of striving for peace and unity. The world would be pitch dark without the eternal values of Sinai, as recorded in the Torah of the Chumash and the Gemara.

Let us walk in the path of Rav Kook who said: “The purely righteous do not complain about wickedness, but add justice. They do not complain about heresy, but add faith. They do not complain about ignorance, but add wisdom.”

In this way it is possible and necessary to prevent a cultural war, and through this true enlightenment, we will all merit together to embrace a new light upon Tzion, speedily in our days, Ahmen.

Besorot Tovot,
Shabbat Shalom and Chanukah Sameach,
With love of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael

Yeshivat Machon Meir: Sichot with the Rosh HaYeshivah Parashat Miketz (video)

When the setback is part of the journey

by Rav Binny Freedman

It was one of the darkest moments of my life. In retrospect it seems almost trivial; so insignificant against the backdrop of the significant events one experiences in life: marrying the girl of your dreams; the birth of your children; walking your daughter down the aisle at her wedding or holding your grandchild for the first time…. But at the time it seemed like my life had entered a dark cloud and I could not begin to fathom why it was happening.

After completing two months of basic infantry training, two months of tank school training to become a tank driver followed by the armored corps’ grueling twelve-week field training course, and then successfully completing tank commander’s course I was invited to IDF Officer training. This is a course by invitation only; no matter how much you want it the army has to decide you are worth the spot. I recall struggling with the decision as it meant signing up for a lot more army time, with no guarantee I would finish. As it turned out, I did not know the half of it.

There were two hundred and fifty of us who had been invited to try our hand at getting into Officer’s course and we were assembled for a month-long ‘mechin’ or prep course. The armored corps only had eighty spots for Officer’s course, and they wanted to be sure the cadets they chose would make it through. I was by then a tank commander with the rank of sergeant, and the temptation to let it go and finally enjoy army service as a soldier with rank, was almost overpowering. But I reasoned that if I had been offered a chance for a spot I had to try; maybe it was all part of Hashem’s plan….

I can still remember, after an intense month of constant tests, exhausting runs, navigations, and a variety of training exercises designed to see how we would fare under pressure, the day the names were called out. We were assembled on the parade ground (misdar) standing at attention while the eighty names were called out in what is known as a misdar de’maot or ‘parade of tears’; tears for the one hundred and seventy cadets who would not be going on to officer’s course.

Four months later after an even more painfully difficult IDF officer’s course at the infamous Bahd Echad, (IDF training base One) I can recall every moment of the day we received our IDF Officer oak leaf-and-sword pin.

Now there was only one course left; four months of one of the most grueling courses in the IDF was all that stood between me and receiving my second lieutenant’s bars: the IDF Tank platoon commander’s course.

And after three months and twenty-seven days, averaging three hours sleep a night, having slept in an actual bed for no more than seven or eight of those days, with just three days left to the course, a tribunal consisting of my company commander, battalion commander and the base commander, explained that they did not feel in good conscience they could send me out into the field to command men under fire.

I remember feeling it had all been like a whirlwind; perhaps it was my Hebrew which was still not up to snuff, or the fact that after so many courses one after the other I had not had enough field experience to run my maneuvers smoothly enough, but after the company commander had personally overseen one of my maneuvers followed by the battalion commander on a subsequent maneuver, my scores were apparently not high enough.

I had been given due notice throughout the course that my scores were borderline, but we had actually completed the course and were in the process of preparing for the final ceremony, practicing on the parade ground, giving back the gear we had signed off on, cleaning the tanks, and I could already taste it; I had allowed myself to think I was done, when they had sent word I was to appear that evening in dress uniform for a tribunal reviewing my course status.

They told me I was good; I just wasn’t good enough. And ten minutes later I was done; told I was free to leave the base and report for a new unit as a tank commander, the thought of spending the night on base watching all my buddies joking around and preparing for the ceremony was too much to bear.

Which was why I found myself at ten o’clock at night on a lonely stretch of road outside the base in the middle of the Negev desert, desperately waiting to hitch a ride, any ride and get as far away as I could from what I was now desperate to put behind me. For six hours I stood on the lonely road beneath the night sky full of stars with my kitbag and gear trying to figure it all out; if I was not meant to be an officer then what was the point of all the hell I had just been through? It was absolutely one of the darkest nights of my life….

This week’s portion of Miketz offers us a glimpse into just such a moment in the life of Yosef: beloved and favored son of Yaakov.

After being sold as a slave and eventually plucked out of the pit of Egypt’s Royal prison system, Yosef, literally overnight, finds himself standing in front of no less than Pharaoh himself being asked to interpret his dreams.

The seven fat healthy cows consumed by the seven sickly cows along the Nile, and the second dream of seven healthy wheat stalks consumed by seven moldy stalks all mean there will be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.

And we all know how the story plays out: Paroh, impressed by Yosef’s wisdom and humility (“it is G-d who provides the interpretations of dreams…”) appoints him to be the viceroy over the entire Egyptian empire, and in a moment, the lowly slave has become the second most powerful person in the world.

But there is one fascinating and seemingly insignificant detail in the story that begs a question: Paroh has two dreams, and they both seem to be identical. So why the need for both dreams?

Yosef actually explains this puzzling detail:

“That Paroh has dreamed this twice means that G-d is firmly resolved regarding this plan and is speedily setting it in motion.” (Bereisheet 41:32)

And one wonders how Yosef knows this? It may well be that G-d has shared with Yosef a prophecy to that effect, but the Torah usually shares such information as prophecy; here, there is no ‘and G-d spoke to Yosef…’ so one has to wonder.

Think about it: Paroh is not the first person to have two dreams; Yosef himself had two dreams many years earlier, which seemed to be the prelude for everything that happened subsequently as the favored son of Yaakov, dreaming of wheat bushels and even the sun moon and stars bowing down to him, suddenly found himself in a pit and then as a slave in darkest Egypt wondering what had happened.

It is hard to imagine Yosef standing before Pharaoh, not recalling his own dreams as well, and one wonders if Yosef suddenly began to realize he was finally getting a glimpse of the bigger picture.

It must have been devastating for Yosef; one minute he was the favored son of Yaakov, gifted with a beautiful technicolor coat as a symbol of his father’s love and dreaming of great things; even the sun moon and stars would bow down to him!

He must have felt G-d was guiding his path: he was destined for greatness.

And in a whirlwind of events he found himself in a pit of despair. First the pit his brothers threw him in, and later the pit of Egyptian servitude. Gone were his delusions of grandeur as the years snuck by and no salvation seemed imminent.

His beloved father Yaakov was not coming to save him and no one seemed to care as he languished in the pit of despair; even the butler whose life he had saved had long forgotten him.

But the Gemara tells us:

“Yeshuat Hashem ke’heref ayin”

“The salvation of Hashem (G-d) can come like the blink of an eye”

And as Yosef stands before Paaoh, perhaps he finally starts to realize this was all part of a bigger picture. It was not the brothers who had thrown him into that pit all those years ago; Hashem had placed him in that pit; indeed, Hashem had been guiding his journey all these years.

In fact, it is fascinating to note that Yosef as a young lad dreamed of wheat bushels bowing down, and Paroh dreamed of wheat stalks being consumed, and it was through the storing of wheat and its later barter that Yosef becomes the instrument for G-d’s plan causing the brothers to eventually come down to Egypt.

And of course, the brothers’ coming to Egypt leads to the eventual servitude of the Jews in Egypt which itself leads to the eventual Exodus which of course leads to the giving of the Torah and the Ten Commandments and the Jews’ eventual return to the land of Israel… because it’s all part of Hashem’s plan….

Perhaps Yosef realizes: that pit was not a setback at all; it was all part of the journey.

And that pit was what allowed Joseph not just to stand before Paroh, but to stand before him with humility which was probably why he was appointed viceroy….

Sometimes we find ourselves in the pit of life, and things all seem to be headed in the wrong direction. But there is always a bigger picture; we just don’t usually get to see it. And though it may seem the wrong direction to us, Hashem is a pretty good navigator, and if we wait long enough, sometimes we get a glimpse of where that journey was really taking us.

They had told me, just before dismissing me, that although normally when a cadet is dismissed from Officer’s course he is never allowed to return (having been found unworthy), in my case, given the circumstances, I would be allowed to repeat the entire course form the beginning; but I had only until Sunday morning to decide….

I thought they were nuts; and in that moment, could not imagine doing it all over again. But after a long tortuous weekend, I decided I had to try if only so I would not spend the rest of my life thinking ‘I should have…’

Which was why, four months later, I finally found myself, nearly two years after first donning an IDF uniform, on the parade ground on that same base in the Negev desert, this time under a bright sun, squinting up at Moshe Levy, the IDF Chief of staff as I received my lieutenant’s bars at last.

It would take a while longer, on a lonely stretch of road in Lebanon, before I finally started to glimpse why I needed those extra months in Officer’s training and why sometimes ‘good’ was actually not good enough. But then, that’s another story….

Shabbat Shalom and Chanukah Sameach from Yerushalayim.

Millions of Christians Are Under Islamist Assault, so Pope Francis Targets the Jews

Perhaps he believes that pointing a finger at the Jews will divert Muslim rage from the Vatican.

by Charles Jacobs and Uzay Bulut

• The Jews are not committing genocide against Muslims in Gaza, whose population grew almost 3% last year. Muslims, however, are committing mass murder via jihad against Christians in Africa. Yet the Pope cowers from defending his own flock.
• The number of Christians intentionally murdered, let alone tortured, raped, kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam far exceeds the number of Gazans killed unintentionally as Israel directs its fire at terrorists who hide behind civilians. Indeed, Israel is defending its population from the very same jihadist assaults faced by African Christians.
• Ahsan Raja Masih, a young Pakistani Christian, has been sentenced to hang for his faith over false "blasphemy" charges. The Catholic Bishops of Pakistan have recently joined the Christian community's outcry against the death sentence. Where is the Pope?
• By turning reality on its head, the Pope's shameful defamation of the Jews complements his passivity in the face of Islamic jihad against Christians. Perhaps he believes that pointing a finger at the Jews will divert Muslim rage from the Vatican. Surely, it distracts the world from his own cowardice and failure to protect Christians.

"Nigeria is the most violent country in the world for Christians. Every two hours, a Christian is killed in Nigeria," according to Open Doors. Pope Francis has not called for an investigation of the jihadists and their sponsors. Pictured: State officials walk past wounded survivors of a jihadist attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo State, Nigeria, in which they murdered 50 Christians, on June 5, 2022. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

Christians face persecution, discrimination, forced conversion and even mass murder for their faith in many parts of the Muslim world, yet Pope Francis, in his upcoming book called Hope, calls for an investigation to see if the Jews are committing a "genocide" against Palestinian Muslims in the Gaza Strip.

The Jews are not committing genocide against Muslims in Gaza, whose population grew almost 3% last year. Muslims, however, are committing mass murder via jihad against Christians in Africa. Yet the Pope cowers from defending his own flock.

Africa has become the epicenter of radical Islamic terrorism. Murderous jihad attacks against Christians abound in Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Niger, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon.

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How Israeli Arab Leaders Betray Their Own People

by Khaled Abu Toameh

• "For the longest time, I struggled with my identity. A Palestinian kid born inside Israel. Like...wtf. Many of my friends refuse to this day to say the word 'Israel' and call themselves 'Palestinian' only. But since I was 12, that did not make sense to me. So, I decided to mix the two and become a 'Palestinian-Israeli.' I thought this term reflected who I was. Palestinian first. Israeli second. But after recent events, I started to think. And think. And think. And then my thoughts turned to anger. I realized that if Israel were to be 'invaded' like that again, we would not be safe. To a terrorist invading Israel, all citizens are targets.... And I do not want to live under a Palestinian government. Which means I only have one home, even if I'm not Jewish: Israel." — Nuseir Yassin ("Nas Daily"), Israeli Arab blogger, the day after October 8, 2023.
• These [Arab Israeli] leaders will do anything to grab the attention of the media – even if that means inciting against Israel. They know that when they deal with the real problems facing their Arab constituents – such as unemployment and poverty – no one will write about them in the media. Yet, when these leaders make fiery statements against Israel, they often win headlines and front-page stories. As far as they are concerned, "I don't care what you write about me as long as you spell my name right."
• By engaging in anti-Israel incitement, these Israeli Arab leaders are causing huge damage to their own constituents. These leaders make the Israeli Arabs look as if they are a "Fifth Column" -- an enemy within. These leaders are stoking fear and mistrust between Jews and Arabs inside Israel, while ignoring that most Israeli Arabs say they feel comfortable living in the Jewish state.
• If Israeli Arabs want to secure a prosperous future for themselves and their children, they need to get rid of extremist Arab leaders who speak and act against the interests of the Arab community inside Israel. If these Arab leaders are unhappy living in Israel, they are welcome to move to the West Bank, Gaza Strip or any Arab country -- where they will quickly miss Israel's democracy and freedom of speech.

While the attitudes of the Israeli Arabs toward Israel are encouraging, some of their leaders continue to act against the interests of their own people. These leaders, including current and former members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament), have long been taking advantage of the country's democratic system to engage in anti-Israel rhetoric, causing huge damage to their own constituents. Pictured: Arab Israeli Members of Knesset Ayman Odeh (L), Ahmad Tibi (R) and Aida Touma-Suleiman in the Knesset chamber, in Jerusalem on July 10, 2023. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)

The Iran-backed Palestinian Hamas terrorist group has long been seeking to spark a civil war between Israel's Arab and Jewish citizens. Over the past few years, Hamas has called on the two million Arab citizens of Israel to revolt against their own country and join the Jihad against Israel.

Hamas's attempts were partially successful in May 2021, when some Arabs attacked their Jewish neighbors. The assaults occurred at the same time as an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. That operation was launched in response to rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups at Israel. Fortunately, the violence that erupted in 2021 ended quickly.

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Yosef’s encoded message

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

I have mentioned several times in the past that when Yosef, as Viceroy of Egypt, accused his brothers of being meraglim—spies, it was a coded message. Each of the Hebrew letters—Mem-Raish-Gimmel-Lamed-Yud-Mem—stood for a different word, the coded message being: M’Immi Rachel genavtem, l’Midianim Yishmael mechartem—from my mother Rachel you stole me; to Midianites, Arabs you sold me. Not bad, eh?

And the brothers were supposed to figure that out off the bat? They had just gotten down to Egypt and it was the first thing to go wrong. That the man standing before them dressed and acting Egyptian and wielding so much power was Yosef was the last thing they could have imagined at that point. So what was the point of Yosef’s encoded message?

It wasn’t for that moment. It was for later, after they had gone through enough to make them start to question what was really going on, which they began to do once they found their money in their sacks on their way back home. Until that time, they were still in their own world and only asked the questions they wanted to. Freaking them out with weird events forced them to start asking questions they didn’t want to.

After all, “necessity is the mother of invention.” Why invent something new when the old works well enough? It’s only once people suffer for reasons they can’t figure out that they go looking for answers, answers that often lead to other questions and then other answers.

And not just for things that are currently happening, or will in the future, but also retroactively. The brain has a remarkable way of doing that, of taking new information and using it to solve old puzzles, sometimes even unconsciously. When Yosef accused his brothers of being spies, he was planting the seeds of future revelations.

Still, even if the brothers had begun to suspect that the Viceroy was Yosef, a big leap of faith to begin with, breaking the world meraglim down into six separate words that told the tale of his sale and enslavement was an even bigger leap. It would have been like figuring out the winning number of a lottery in advance using mathematics. It might be possible, but the odds are heavily against being right, even for the smartest person in the world.

But you can’t believe how many things you enjoy in life whose discovery had similar odds. Some were just the result of trial and error, lots of trial and error. Others were discovered more quickly because of some “lucky” circumstance. But since we don’t believe in luck at all, because everything is a function of Divine Providence, we have to assume that God decided to give the discoverer a break by speeding up the right result.

It works the same with insights as well. If I had a dollar for every time an insight came to me because of some unplanned circumstance, I could almost retire. I’m talking about getting the idea for a parsha sheet or an entire book because I happened to be thinking about something at a bus stop while a bus went by with an advertisement on the side. The advertisement had nothing to do with the idea I was thinking about, but seeing it at exactly the same time I was thinking about an idea somehow led to a new insight.

Yosef had known that if he got his brothers started, they would ask the questions, maybe even do a little teshuvah and warrant the necessary Divine Providence to work out the puzzle. In fact, one of the best ways to know if you’re going in the right direction in life is how God helps you connect the dots in whatever you’re doing right. Somehow life, history, a book, a person, or even the most unusual thing will make some impression on you to move your thinking in the right direction.

Because knowledge is just light, Divine light. But being holy, it can only flow to people according to their level of holiness. The more fitting a vessel is spiritually speaking, the greater and more insightful the light will be. The higher a person ascends spiritually, the higher the spiritual light they can access will be.

This is what it means that the Ohr HaGanuz, the Primordial Light that God hid on Day One of Creation from the evil history, can be found in the thirty-six Ner Shel Chanukah. Obviously, it is not a physical thing, but a spiritual one, not something seen with the physical eye but the mind’s eye. And the thing about the mind’s eye is that it opens only as wide as a person’s heart does for truth.

Countless times throughout history, people have come to know far more knowledge than they actually learned, more sophisticated knowledge than they should have been able to. We don’t notice it much in our own lives because most people never try to know or understand much more than they need to in order to get by in life. So God says, “If they don’t want to know, why should I tell them?”

Want to know, so God will tell you…and you will be more than amazed by what He has to say. A freilechen Chanukah.

Israel, Amos and the Philistines

by Nils A. Haug

• Israel's enemies in Gaza today, like the Philistines of old, constitute a mortal threat to the nation, although that threat diminishes as Israel again succeeds in overcoming its enemies.
• One hopes, with the astounding team of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President-elect Donald J. Trump, who successfully initiated the Abraham Accords, that jihads, pogroms and similar events will no longer take place, and that Israel will soon herald in a new dispensation of peace and redemption, as promised to Moses on Mt. Sinai, and live once again as "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

Hamas has been occupying Gaza, as did the Philistines. Both tribes had a similar agenda: eliminating all Israelites, the Israelis of today. Pictured: Hamas terrorists with their child trainee at a rally in Gaza City on May 24, 2021. (Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images)


The Hebrew prophet Amos lived some 2,700 years ago, during the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel. At the time, the Israelites' main enemies were the Philistines of Gaza, reputed to be the most menacing tribe in the region and dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

Amos predicted dire punishment for the Philistines, who had taken "captive whole communities and sold them to Edom." The Philistines had attacked the Israelites, enslaved and sold them to another of their enemies, the tribe of Edom. According to Amos, divine retribution was at hand. Certain passages of Amos's prophecy cite the punishment of Israel's Gazan enemies:


"Because she took captive whole communities
and sold them to Edom,
I will send fire on the walls of Gaza
that will consume her fortresses.
I will destroy the king of Ashdod
and the one who holds the scepter in Ashkelon.
I will turn my hand against Ekron,
till the last of the Philistines are dead."

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Rabbi Doniel Glatstein on Chanukah and Parshas Mikeitz: Rashi's Frequent Citing of Targum in Mikeitz (video)

Rabbi Ari Kahn on Parashat Miketz: The Executioner’s Protégé (video)

Rav Kook's Ein Ayah: Thanking Hashem and Divine Free Will

Gemara: From the day the world was created, there was no one who thanked Hashem until Leah came and thanked Him, as the pasuk says: “This time I will thank Hashem” (Bereisheet 29:35).

Ein Ayah: There is a difference between a blessing and thanksgiving. A blessing is said on any good thing that comes from a specific cause even if was not done especially for the purpose [that positively affected the one who is blessing]. Examples are: “blessed be he who begot this child;” “blessed is he who raised this child.” In contrast, thanksgiving comes specifically over a good thing that came from the free will of the provider of the good, who could have either provided it or refrained from doing so.

It is for this reason that until Leah, no person bothered to give thanks. Although Hashem is the real reason behind all things, matters do not emanate from Him in a manner that He needed to do so, as some philosophers posit, but out of Divine free will, which is deserving of thanks. One should not deflect the opinion [that Hashem is forced to by absolute Divine justice or logic] because if everything [that Hashem brings] comes of Divine necessity, then there would be no room for service of Hashem and reward and punishment, which the forefathers already taught us exist. This is not necessarily so. It is plausible that Hashem brings on all the good things and the entire existence with all of its details with wonderful providence so that even human completeness (shleimut), which is included in existence, is an outgrowth of it. It would follow from this possibility that since man needs to serve in holiness to elevate his soul and fix his attributes in order to be complete, this would cause the Divine shleimut to arrange that the more righteous one is, the more he would merit shleimut and real success, etc. Since it is plausible, one could have said that Hashem is forced to act in a certain way.

Despite the above explanation’s plausibility, the truth is not that way. After all, man’s ability to thank Hashem includes a major part of the ethical element and the loftiness of the human spirit, which could not be missing from existence. This shleimut couldn’t exist unless there was a Divine manner of leading the world that extended from Divine free will without any element of Hashem having to act in a certain way out of necessity. [In other words, Hashem ensured His own free will so that we could be able to thank Him.] This is why Leah came and thanked, to let this true idea be known. Based on this foundation was built the obligation of the korban todah (the thanksgiving sacrifice), whose level is lofty and will not be done away with even in the Days to Come.

One should understand that prayer could have existed even if Hashem would have been drawn into a certain behavior out of [moral] necessity. This would have worked in the following manner. Since a person becomes more complete through his prayers to his Maker, Hashem could be forced through His Divine shleimut to find value in the prayer, which could cause its goal to be reached. [The approach of Divine necessity, then,] would not preclude the need for all the things that prepare and uplift the value of one’s prayers. However, the matter of thanks to Hashem and the human shleimutthat comes with it, would by necessity be missing had the truth not been that the Divine manner of leading the world is not forced but is of choice, as we say “life by His will” (Tehillim 30:6). [It turns out that] the human shleimut which we get based on our free choice serves as a trustworthy witness regarding our Maker [who also has free choice]. This is why there is chametz in the korban todah, for chametz is an indication of the reversibility of the good powers that are responsible for the freedom of choice. This would not be appropriate if all the powers were capable of doing only good.

Confidence in Hashem

by HaRav Mordechai Greenberg
Nasi HaYeshiva, KeremB'Yavneh

"Praiseworthy is the man who has made Hashem his confidence, and turned not to the arrogant." (Tehillim 40:5) The Midrash at the beginning of our parsha applies this pasuk to Yosef (Bereisheet Rabbah 89:2):

"Praiseworthy is the man who has made Hashem his confidence" - This is Yosef."and turned not to the arrogant" -- Because Yosef asked the sar hamashkim (chamberlain of the cupbearers), "think of me" (zechartani) and "mention me" (hizkartani), another two years were added [to his imprisonment]. The obvious question is: Is a person prohibited from making efforts to attain his freedom? After all, there is a principle that man should not depend on miracles!

With regards to Hashgacha Pratit ("Divine Providence"), the Rambam writes in Moreh Nevuchim (3:51), "A most extraordinary speculation has occurred to me now, through which doubts may be resolved and Divine secrets revealed." The Rambam's innovative idea is that G-d watches over and involves Himself in each man's life in proportion to that man's loyalty and closeness to Hashem. Likewise, G-d hides Himself from man to the same degree that the person distances himself from G-d. "Hence, it seems to me, that a prophet or pious man who was beset by any one of the evils of the world -- it befell him only during a time of [Divine] concealment. The longer the period of concealment, the stronger the calamity will be." With this principle, the Rambam resolves the quandary of why calamities occur to the righteous.

Similarly, we can explain the concepts of confidence in G-d ("bitachon") and effort ("hishtadlut"). The Ramban (Vayikra 26:11) writes that long ago, pious people would not seek a doctor for medical help but rather would turn to the prophet. G-d treats the righteous in miraculous fashion, so why should they need to turn to anyone but G-d when they fall ill? "What part do physicians have in the house of those who do the will of G-d?" However, with the passage of time, each generation has fallen farther and farther away from G-d, so people began to seek out physicians. For this reason the Torah granted the physician permission to cure. We do not find, though, that permission was granted to the patient to seek out a doctor, and someone with a very high degree of bitachon in G-d would not seek out a doctor. This is why Assa, King of Yehuda, who had a tremendous amount of confidence in G-d, was criticized when, "also in his illness he did not seek out Hashem, but only doctors." (Divrei Hayamim II 16:12)

Then again, someone who sins, or even expends effort in other matters, should not demonstrate inordinate confidence in G-d in medical issues. In this vein, on the pasuk, "Her leaders judge for bribes and her priests teach for a fee and her prophets divine for money -- yet they rely on Hashem, saying, 'Behold, Hashem is in our midst; no evil can befall us!'" (Micha 3:11), Chazal comment, "They were wicked, but they placed their confidence in the One who said, and the world came into existence." (Shabbat 139a) This kind of confidence is hypocrisy!

The common perception is that "bitachon" means to believe that if one has confidence in G-d, He will grant all the person's requests. Contrary to this, the Chazon Ish writes in his book, "Emunah U'Bitachon" (Faith and Confidence, ch. 2), that this kind of belief is fundamentally wrong:

Who knows G-d's considerations and His payments? Rather, the concept of bitachon is the belief that events do not occur randomly, and that everything that happens in the world is ordained by G-d, whether good or otherwise ... This belief is the trait of bitachon. Since Yosef said, "think of me" and "mention me," two more years were added to his imprisonment. Rav Shimon Shkop asked what would have happened had Yosef only asked the sar hamashkim once; would one year have been added to his imprisonment? He answered that Yosef was justified in making an attempt and asking once, but his excessive attempt revealed, retroactively, that even his first request reflected a lack of confidence in G-d.

For Yosef, who stood at a high spiritual level, the efforts through the sar hamashkim represented a flaw in his bitachon. So too, every man needs to take account of his personal situation, yet must be careful not to let proper hishtadlut yield to simple laziness under the pretense of complete confidence and faith in G-d.

Rav Kook on Parashat Mikeitz: Yosef and the Ein Hara

Rebbi Yochanan, the third century scholar, had an unusual custom. He would sometimes sit down outside the town mikveh. This way, he explained, the Jewish women will see me as they leave the bath and will have children as beautiful as me.

Rebbi Yochanan’s colleagues asked him: Are you not afraid of the Ein Hara?

“I am descended from Yosef,” he replied, “and the Ein Hara had no power over him.” (Berachot 20a)

Apart from the issue of Rebbi Yochanan’s beauty, this story raises some interesting questions. What is the Ein Hara? Is it just a primitive superstition? And why was Yosef, more than any other Biblical figure, immune from it?

The Gemara explains that Yosef merited protection from the Ein Hara since “his eye did not wish to benefit from that which did not belong to him.” Despite Mrs. Potiphar’s attempts to seduce him, Joseph remained faithful to God and his employer. Truly an act of great moral integrity — but what does this have to do with the Ein Hara? 

Rav Kook explained that the Ein Hara is an example of how one soul may affect another through unseen connections between them. We are all influenced by our environment. Living among the refined and the righteous has a strong positive effect, while living among the crass and the corrupt has a negative one. The Ein Hara is simply the venomous impact from malignant feelings of jealousy and envy of those around us.

A person who has hardened his inner resolve and does not allow himself to be misled from the correct path, despite outside pressures — such a person has built a ‘firewall’ protecting his soul from external influences. The Biblical hero who most prominently demonstrated this strength of character and refusal to be led astray is Yosef. Seventeen years old, young and handsome, estranged from the protective framework of his family and culture, a slave propositioned by a powerful and attractive woman, Yosef nevertheless beat the odds and remained faithful to his ideals. Joseph determined that he would not be swayed by his surroundings, no matter how persuasive.

Through his heroic stance, Yosef merited that the Ein Hara would have no power over him and his descendants.

(Gold from the Land of Israel, pp. 86-87. Adapted from Ein Eyah vol. I, p. 102 by Rav Chanan Morrison)

Timing Is Everything

by Rabbi Dov Berel Wein

There is a famous statement that reverberates throughout Jewish society over the ages that states: "…what cannot be solved by wisdom, will eventually be solved by the passage of time." It seems that time is never neutral, and that its passage certainly influences decisions and events that take place in human society. 

Our rabbis have commented that the miraculous deliverance of Yosef from his prison cell and his rise to power was, to a certain extent, due to the time that had passed, and with the heavenly intervention in human events. It suddenly became the time when Yosef should be set free and achieve greatness and dominion. That is why the Torah reading, with this unbelievable mysterious story, now begins to unfold after time has elapsed and when the correct moment for the divine will to be activated in human affairs.

In dealing with business and commerce, we are all aware of the axiom that "timing is everything." Well, that is not only true in matters of finance and business but it also a basic axiom of life and of human history. What can be accomplished at a certain time becomes impossible to achieve either earlier or later. The examples regarding this truism are various and innumerable. It is the circumstances that the passage of time create that fashions the milieu in which events can take place, and individuals can rise to greatness or be defeated.

The timing of heaven and God's guidance in human affairs is always mysterious, inexplicable, and irrational to us ordinary mortals. However, in retrospect, one sees the perfection involved, and the exquisite nature of the timing that governs human events. Shlomo HaMelech taught us in Kohelet that there is a time for everything to occur, and that everything has its time.

Among the many fallacies of human thought is the idea that we not only control the occurrence of events, but, somehow, we also have the power to decide when those events should take place. It should be obvious to all that we do not control time. In fact, unfortunately, we allow time to control us, our behavior, our schedules and even our goals. It never enters our minds that somehow time is really beyond the boundaries of our powers of control, and beyond even our most fervent wishes and desires.

In truth, most of our lives are almost predetermined: when we are born, and the circumstances of the present world in which we live. It takes a famine of epic proportions to propel Yosef to greatness, political stature, and governmental power. Heaven will use those times and circumstances to reunite the family of Yaakov, and to begin the story of Jewish exile and redemption. Everything that happens from then on, in the family of Yaakov, will be a product of the times and the society in which they find themselves. They will go into exile on schedule and will also be redeemed at the right time. But being human, they will not all be aware of the schedule itself.

The True Chanukah Message for Today

by HaRav Dov Lior

Chanukah occurs every year at the time of year when we read aloud the stories of Joseph and his brothers - including especially how Yosef remained loyal to his faith and family even when he was alone in Egypt. It is clear that the messages of Chanukah are related to these national beginnings of our people, as related in the Book of Bereisheet.

Yosef's descent into the darkness of Egypt was for the purpose of laying the groundwork for the construction of the Nation of Israel. The Israelites had undergone quite a process from the time they were a group of individuals in the Land of Canaan, until their recognition as a "people" by none other than King Paroh of Egypt. Until then they were known as the "sons of Yaakov," but the king referred to them as "the nation of the sons of Israel" (Sh'mot 1,9).

The survival of the House of Yaakov in the darkness of the exile and impurity of Egypt for over 200 years was made possible by the righteousness of Yosef, Yosef HaTzaddik, who maintained the lifestyle and faith in the G-d of his forefathers just as he was taught in his father's home. Yosef remained a faithful Jew even though he was nearly as powerful as a king, and taught his sons Ephraim and Menashe his traditions as well, so that they would not be swallowed up in the cheap and misguided culture of the Egyptians.

These days of Chanukah have served, ever since the days of the Hasmoneans and up to today, as days of great inspiration for the Nation of Israel. The mighty and heroic victory over the Syrian Greeks was not limited to its time alone. It rather instilled national pride in our people for generations on end, up until this very day.

Greek culture - that of superficiality and the pursuit of luxury - sought to overcome the powerful spirit of the Torah of Israel and human striving for sanctity of life and eternal values in every situation. Torah’s victory over the Greek culture of yore is that which gives us the spiritual armor to stand, even now, against the dark winds blowing around the world, seeking to prevent the historic return of the Nation of Israel to its Land and the establishment of its kingdom - the Kingdom of G-d - that has forever been the destiny of Israel.

The problem in our time is not one of territory, in that our enemies want our land. It is rather that they object to our very existence. We stand for too much spirit, to their taste, and they cannot take that we reflect it to the world. They are against the State of Israel as the country of the Jewish People, and the ethics and goodness that we grant the world are a constant reminder of all that they hate. As we see clearly, their objections are not becoming lighter or easier - but we are confident that “the eternity of Israel will not lie,” and that our national return to our holy and ancestral land that began over a century ago will become stronger and stronger, to the point that the light of our Redemption will become a great torch leading the camp. We pray that we will all merit to experience the redemption of our nation and entire Land very soon.

Iran-Affiliated Venezuelan Gangs Invited Into the United States

by Robert Williams

• "Border Patrol zones across Texas, Arizona and California had no agent presence for weeks and months at a time. Those who did not want to be caught could simply walk in. We have no idea who and what entered our country over this time." — Aaron Heitke, retired chief patrol agent for the San Diego Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, September 18, 2024.
• "Simultaneously, in San Diego we had an exponential increase in [Special] Interest Aliens (SIAs). These are aliens with significant ties to terrorism.... I was told I could not release any information on this increase in SIA's or mention any of the arrests. The administration was trying to convince the public that there was no threat at the border." — Aaron Heitke, testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, September 18, 2024.

More than half a million Venezuelans have entered the US illegally since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. These included criminals from the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, has "a history of flooding other countries with military-aged Venezuelan males to establish a base of operation to carry out violent crimes in those countries." Pictured: Illegal immigrants, mostly Venezuelans, arrive to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents on September 29, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas, after agents allowed them into the United States to make asylum claims. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

More than half a million Venezuelans have entered the US illegally since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Until Biden became president, few Venezuelans arrived illegally. Only around 4,500 arrived in 2020. After Biden's inauguration, however, numbers exploded: 50,499 Venezuelans illegally entered in 2021, another 189,520 in 2022 and a whopping 334,914 in 2023.

This means that Venezuelans now rank second in illegal immigration into the US, after Mexicans, who still take the number one spot.

For more than two decades, Venezuela has been a close ally of Iran, and a regional home base for Hezbollah, Iran's proxy in the Middle East. Hezbollah, according to one 2020 Atlantic Council report, helped to "turn Venezuela into a hub for the convergence of transnational organized crime and international terrorism."

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A Vision for a Second Trump Term

by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

by Chaim Silberstein and Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Esq.

President-elect Donald Trump’s first term was noted for its remarkable accomplishments in stabilizing the Middle East, strengthening Israel’s strategic position, and especially embracing creative thinking and policies that transformed the reality on the ground. Decisions such as recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the American embassy to Jerusalem paved the way to the historic breakthrough of the Abraham Accords. All this was achieved largely to the consternation and even dismay of the foreign policy establishment, whose reassertion of traditional diplomacy in the last four years has contributed to the outbreak of violence in this region and other parts of the world.

The proposed nominees for the critical positions that will determine US foreign policy in the coming four years have gratified supporters of Israel. Marco Rubio, Mike Walz, Mike Huckabee and others have been steadfast supporters of a strong Israel that is a genuine friend and trusted ally of the United States. While the plate of any new administration is full, and the most pressing matters in Israel today concern the need for decisive defeats of Hamas and Hezbollah and the return of all Israeli hostages, there are several items worthy of the new administration’s agenda that can solidify the advances made in the first Trump administration and further promote peace and security in the region.

These proposals focus on securing the future of Jerusalem. It should be lost on no one that Hamas called its invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, the “Al-Aksa Flood,” as it and all Israel’s enemies perceive the conquest of Jerusalem as the ultimate objective. What can be done to reinforce Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem? There are five proposals, some merely restoration of Trump policy in his first term, others a blueprint for preserving Jerusalem into the future.

First, shutter (again) the US Office of Palestinian Affairs (OPA) in Jerusalem. The OPA functions in violation of American, Israeli, and international law as a quasi-diplomatic mission in the heart of Israel’s capital that deals exclusively with the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. It reports not to the US Embassy in Jerusalem but directly to the State Department. This mission was closed by President Trump after the embassy was moved to Jerusalem but was reopened by President Biden shortly after he assumed office in 2021 notwithstanding Israel’s objection and denial of recognition.

The OPA encroaches on Israel’s sovereignty and, by bypassing the serving US ambassador to Israel, undermines his effectiveness and the integrity of his mission. As was demonstrated during the first Trump term, handling Palestinian affairs from the US Embassy in Jerusalem is efficient, proper, and comports with international law and diplomatic norms. The OPA should be closed and its activities subsumed by the Embassy.

Second, restore “Jerusalem, Israel,” as an official place of birth on American passports. For decades, American citizens living in Israel whose children were born in Jerusalem could not register their child’s place of birth as “Jerusalem, Israel,” due to the State Department’s claim that Jerusalem’s status as part of Israel was disputed. The place of birth was simply recorded as “Jerusalem.”

The US Embassy website in Israel notes: “Applicants born in Jerusalem are able to request either “Jerusalem” or “Israel” as their place of birth (POB) on U.S. passports ….  If you write “Jerusalem, Israel” as the POB on the passport, consular staff will ask you whether you prefer the U.S. passport to be printed with a POB of either “Jerusalem” or “Israel.”

This, too, purports to undermine Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem and contradicts the spirit of the US recognition of Jerusalem’s as Israel’s capital city. This policy should be repudiated, and US citizens who so desire should be allowed to have their place of birth recorded as “Jerusalem, Israel.”

Third, President Trump should immediately defund UNRWA, as he did in his first term. UNRWA has long outlived its usefulness – it is the only refugee relief organization that seeks to perpetuate refugee status among its beneficiaries – and has been justly accused of being part of the Hamas terror network. Some UNRWA staff members participated in the atrocities of October 7, 2023, and many UNRWA facilities in Gaza harbored terrorists and concealed terror infrastructure. An Israeli court ordered UNRWA’s eviction from its facility in Jerusalem which UNRWA illegally occupied. The United States should support that eviction, halt (again) its funding of UNRWA, and urge the disbandment of the organization and the reassignment of its duties to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Fourth, support the construction of new Jewish neighborhoods within the existing municipal boundaries of Jerusalem especially in the eastern section. The physical footprint of Jerusalem needs to grow in order to accommodate a growing population. There are several areas in Jerusalem’s environs that are available for Jewish residence and the development of new neighborhoods. Examples are Givat Hamatos to the east, Givat Hashaked to the south, and Atarot to the north. There are thousands of dunams available for development that can create housing for hundreds of thousands of new residents.

All these neighborhoods are within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries. Given the housing crisis in Israel, it is wrong that they remain vacant and undeveloped. President-elect Trump, a real estate maven, can take the lead in supporting these plans and enabling Israel to fulfill its vision for Jerusalem.

Fifth, support Israel’s consideration of the Greater Jerusalem Metropolis Plan. Jerusalem is today’s Israel’s most populous city, and urban and economic expansion are a national priority to ensure the capital’s economic, political and demographic security.

Today Jerusalem is geographically trapped with expansion options limited – Ramallah is to the north, Bethlehem is to the south, there is a ‘green’ ecosystem to the west. So far, the options are to expand vertically in existing expensive neighborhoods. That does not solve the severe problem of lack of affordable housing. Increasing the supply through expanding the municipal borders and establishing large new neighborhoods would significantly reduce prices and, together with increasing job opportunities, help reverse the negative immigration from Jerusalem. Over the past 30 years, over 400,000 Jews have left Jerusalem because of lack of affordable housing and job opportunities.

Incorporating the satellite cities surrounding Jerusalem will be a benefit for all the residents in both areas. It will free up hundreds of thousands of dunams for development of residential, commercial, tourism and leisure industries. Today Jews constitute approximately 60% of the population. Expanding the municipal borders will also contribute to securing its Jewish majority by adding over 200,000 residents to the city. The Greater Jerusalem proposal would include the city of Maalei Adumim to the east of Jerusalem and Gush Etzion to the south, Givat Zeev to the north and possibly also Mevaseret Zion to the west.

Note that none of the proposals displace even one Arab and essentially just redraw Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries in a way that bolsters Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Expanding Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries need not impede the final status negotiations that have been a goal of American diplomacy for decades. Similarly, the mere prospect of future negotiations should not leave Jerusalem in permanent limbo unable to develop and flourish because of the veto power over negotiations exercised by Israel’s enemies. This logjam can be broken by creative diplomacy and a diplomatic green light by the US to Israel to pursue the expansion of Jerusalem.

These proposals will be to the immense benefit of all the residents of Jerusalem, Jews, Muslims and Christians and ensure Jerusalem remains the eternal capital of Israel and the Jewish people with a free, secure and flourishing future.

The implementation of these proposals would be a natural continuation of the policies of the first Trump administration and secure his historic legacy of support for the State of Israel and transformation of the Middle East.

Chaim Silberstein is founder and president of the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy, where Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Esq, serves as Senior Research Associate.

How the International Community Can Best Help the Palestinians

by Khaled Abu Toameh

• Had the international community held the Palestinian Authority (PA) accountable for financial and administrative corruption after the signing of the Oslo Accords 30 years ago, the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group would not have gained popularity among Palestinians.
• Although many Palestinians support Hamas's policy of rejecting Israel's right to exist, the Islamist group's victory greatly reflected the desire of the Palestinian public to end corruption in the PA government and institutions.
• The most common forms of corruption seem to be the offenses of favoritism, nepotism, embezzlement of public funds, breach of trust, abuse of power, bribery and money laundering.
• The best way to undermine Hamas and help the Palestinians is by offering the people a better alternative to the Islamist movement. The current Palestinian Authority leadership is just not seen by many Palestinians as a better alternative to Hamas. That is because the United States, European Union and other donors are not banging on the table and demanding an end to the PA's authoritarian and corrupt conduct.

Had the international community held the Palestinian Authority (PA) accountable for financial and administrative corruption after the signing of the Oslo Accords 30 years ago, the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group would not have gained popularity among Palestinians. The current PA leadership is just not seen by many Palestinians as a better alternative to Hamas. That is because the US, EU and other donors are not banging on the table and demanding an end to the PA's authoritarian and corrupt conduct. Pictured: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Jordan on October 13, 2023. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Had the international community held the Palestinian Authority (PA) accountable for financial and administrative corruption after the signing of the Oslo Accords 30 years ago, the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group would not have gained popularity among Palestinians. Hamas became so popular that its representatives won the last elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), in 2006. The Hamas-affiliated Change and Reform list received 44.45% of the vote and won 74 of the 132 seats in the PLC.

Although many Palestinians support Hamas's policy of rejecting Israel's right to exist, the Islamist group's victory greatly reflected the desire of the Palestinian public to end corruption in the PA government and institutions.

Justin Curtis wrote in Harvard University's Exposé Magazine in 2016:

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Thank You, Israel, for Saving the World, Defending Freedom and Reshaping the Middle East

by Majid Rafizadeh

• When it comes to national security, appeasement is not an option. Bribing aggressors only finances their militaries for attacks on the West in the future. Israel's approach to combating terrorism has always been characterized by thoroughness and determination -- for which is usually put through the tortures of hell by the very countries it is working to save.
• With a vision of ultimately fostering peace, harmony, security and prosperity throughout the region, as in the Abraham Accords, Israel expanded its military operations beyond Hamas... reshaping the Middle East into a region free of the grip of terror... Make Persia Great Again!
• So long as Iran's regime remains in power, brutalizing its people and making plans for global expansion, there can be no chance for peace in the region.
• Removing the regime... would bring lasting security and prosperity to the Middle East and beyond.... One could then set about subduing Turkey and its terrorist proxies in Syria.

When it comes to national security, appeasement is not an option. Bribing aggressors only finances their militaries for attacks on the West in the future. Israel's approach to combating terrorism has always been characterized by thoroughness and determination -- for which is usually put through the tortures of hell by the very countries it is working to save. Pictured: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Force Amir Ali Hajizadeh look on as a Jihad missile is displayed at a parade in Tehran on September 21, 2024. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)

After Hamas carried out its horrific October 7, 2023 massacre by invading Israel, murdering hundreds of people and kidnapping individuals from various countries, Israel reached a breaking point. This act of terrorism ignited a wave of decisive actions across the Middle East that catalyzed remarkable developments, aimed at countering and eliminating terror networks.

For decades, the region has been plagued by violence and instability, but Israel's response marked a significant turning point, showcasing its resolve to confront terrorism head-on and help usher in a new era of security.

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Everything in the Middle East Means the Opposite

by Daniel Greenfield

Even as Islamic Jihadists are taking over Syria, ethnically cleansing Kurds and terrorizing Christians, the media is hailing the new “inclusive” regime which “liberated” Syria.

The regime is indeed inclusive if you consider bearded men with assault rifles to be the measure of inclusivity. And terrorizing minorities to be the exciting new diversity.

“This victory, my brothers, is a victory for the entire Islamic nation,” Abu Mohammad al-Jawlani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Al Qaeda and ISIS allied group, declared in the Umayyad Mosque. The mosque is a symbol of the old Caliphate and it echoed the speech given by his old friend, the former ISIS Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in Mosul’s Great Mosque of al-Nuri declaring his own caliphate. But it will no doubt be a most inclusive caliphate.

As Jawlani had previously said, “some people limit the issue of implementing the rule of the sharia to just imposing some of the Hudud punishments, chopping off hands, stoning whomever, whipping someone who drinks alcohol, and so on. But this is a very basic part of the very big concept of implementing the rule of the sharia.” There’s a lot more to Sharia Islamic law than just chopping off hands but you have to work on the basics of hand chopping before going big.

Syria’s newly appointed Prime Minister Mohammad al-Bashir appeared in front of a white Jihadist flag with the Islamic declaration that rejects all other religions except Islam. Bashir’s credentials include a degree in Sharia Islamic law and membership in the Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘Syrian Salvation Government’. After saving Syria from Assad, who will save it from the saviors?

Secretary of State Blinken is going on a tour to persuade the Turks and their Jihadis to establish an “inclusive” government in Syria. But inclusivity now means Sunni Jihadis backed by Turkey repressing and killing everyone else. This will be a fundamental liberating change from the old order in which Shiite Jihadis backed by Iran repressed and killed everyone else.

Words in the Middle East however have a way of meaning different things than they do over here. It’s not just “inclusive” that has a whole other dictionary entry.




Turkey bombing and displacing Kurds in Syria is considered “inclusivity”, but Israel bombing Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon is termed “genocide”.

The Islamist regime in Turkey, which has maintained an actual occupation of popular areas in Syria, before using proxies to seize the entire country, has accused Israel of “occupation” for expanding a security zone that it used to hold on an uninhabited mountain over 9,000 feet up.

The only possible victims of this ‘occupation’ might be the goats in the region who will likely appreciate and personally benefit from this long overdue ‘change of management’.

‘Occupation’ was a term widely used to describe Israel’s lack of presence in Gaza from which it had withdrawn back in 2005. But the simple fact that Israel was not in Gaza did not dissuade activists, journalists and the UN from accusing Israel of occupying land it wasn’t even on.

But ‘occupation’, like ‘inclusivity’, means the opposite of what it does in the Middle East.

Another popular accusation was that Israel was conducting a ‘siege’ of Gaza by refusing to let Hamas terrorists through its borders to kill and rape their way across Israel. By that definition any border with an enemy nation is a ‘siege’ and by locking your own door at night you’re besieging all the people outside who might want to break into your house.

“Genocide” is another of those many words that have different meanings in the New Middle East Dictionary. Amnesty International has come under fire for changing the definition of “genocide” in order to be able to accuse Israel of it.

Amnesty’s report is headlined, “‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman”. If you feel like it’s genocide, well then it’s genocide. Amnesty decided that its definition of genocide should not use the traditional definition of “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” because, as it explained on Page 101 of its report, it “considers this an overly cramped interpretation of international jurisprudence and one that would effectively preclude a finding of genocide in the context of an armed conflict.”

War becomes genocide. But only in the case of Israel. Meanwhile actual genocidal efforts by Hamas on Oct 7 and Turkey in Syria to target ethnic groups are redefined as “liberation”.

Probably inclusive liberation.

Gaza’s population actually grew which makes it a very unique form of genocide indeed. But after a year of claiming that there was no food in Gaza (despite social media videos of the Arab Muslim population stuffing itself during its annual Islamic festivities), “starvation” was also redefined. So was ‘famine’ which is defined as 2 per 1,000 people dying of heart attacks.

Over 1 million tons of food have entered Gaza since Oct 7. That’s half a ton for every terrorist supporter. Half a ton of food for every man, woman and children is to ‘starvation’ as population growth is to ‘genocide’ and as Jihad is to an ‘inclusive’ government in Syria.

But the New Middle East Dictionary has plenty of room for lots of Newspeak revisions.

The Arab Spring redefined Islamist takeovers as “democracy movements”. Egyptian Washington Post columnist Shadi Hamid of Qatar’s Brookings Institute, recently charged that, “the U.S. has actively undermined democratic movements in the Arab world for decades — one of the great moral stains on America.” By democratic movements, he means the Muslim Brotherhood. And democracy then becomes Islamic theocracy and political terror.

But probably inclusive theocracy and political terror.

Arabic is written from right to left and sometimes things mean the opposite of what they do, but the problem is that we’ve adopted the Middle Eastern habit of dealing with the region by making words mean the opposite. When our political elites call genocide ‘liberation’ and liberation ‘genocide’, when they stigmatize any resistance to Islamic terror while calling terror ‘inclusive’, they’re not only reversing the moral polarities of our foreign policy, but killing the truth.

And making it impossible to understand what is really going on in the Middle East.

Initially we changed the definitions of words to fool the terrorists only to end up fooling ourselves. Efforts to avoid calling ISIS the “Islamic State” and to redefine Islamic terrorism as “violent extremism” or worse still “man-caused disasters” didn’t end up dissuading any Muslims from joining ISIS (whose I’s don’t stand for ‘inclusive’) and didn’t make us any safer.

The entire narrative of ‘radicalization’ tried to gate off some forms of Islam as legitimate and others as illegitimate as if there were an Islam out there that didn’t follow the same Koran. Under Obama, a “countering violent extremism” program was deployed to convince Muslims that Islamic terrorism of the kind practiced beginning with Mohammed was ‘un-Islamic’.

We didn’t fool any Muslims but we did fool ourselves. In 2024, all Islam is good. It’s inclusive. Especially when its bearded thugs are inclusively chopping off someone’s hands. And any resistance to it is bad. When Muslim Jihadis commit genocide, it becomes liberation. And when anyone fights back against them, it’s genocide. If they kill terrorists, it’s a war crime, and if they don’t kill them, it’s famine, siege and starvation no matter how fat the starving terrorists get.

Redefinition makes everything in the Middle East factually opposite to make it morally opposite.

The common paraphrase of Burke is wrong. All that is required for the triumph of evil is not for good men to do nothing, but for them to believe that evil is good and therefore good is evil.

Making everything morally opposite is truly all that is required for the triumph of evil.

Ireland Is Committing Genocide Against Itself

by Daniel Greenfield

The obsession of the Irish government with falsely accusing Israel of genocide is only equaled by its determination to commit an actual genocide against the Irish people.

In its latest move, the Irish government has called for watering down the definition of genocide to be able to apply it to the Jewish State, but there is no need to water down the formal definition, the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”, to charge Ireland’s government with ‘self-genocide’ or ‘autogenocide’ against its own people.

In the last 20 years, Ireland, a small nation of millions, has been overwhelmed by a mass migration of 1.6 million people. In 2023, there were 54,678 births in the Republic of Ireland and 141,600 immigrants. Birth rates dropped 5% in 2023 (hovering at 1.5 births per woman well below replacement rate) but the number of immigrants grew by 31%. And will grow further.

The most popular name for boys was Jack, among Irish parents, while the most popular name among non-European immigrant parents was ‘Mohammed’.

Churches are closing across Ireland and mosques are opening in their place. There were only 400 Muslims in all of Ireland in 1991. That shot up to 19,000 in 2002 and 83,000 in 2023. 3% of Ireland’s children are Muslim now and the numbers are increasing every year.



Some Muslims are impatient with those numbers and have been trying to hurry them along.

In November, an Algerian Arab began stabbing children outside a Catholic school in Dublin. A five and six-year-old girl suffered severe injuries. When a crowd gathered to protest the latest act of Muslim violence, a ruthless police and media crackdown quickly ensued.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the son of an Indian father, scolded that the Irish protesters had “brought shame on Dublin, brought shame on Ireland and brought shame on their families and themselves.” No shame was brought on those who had allowed Riad Bouchaker and a legion of foreign invaders like him to occupy Ireland, slaughter and displace the native population.


Media accounts emphasized that the Algerian Muslim stabber, Bouchaker, who needed an Arabic translator in court, was really an “Irish citizen” and condemned bigotry against him.

No mention was made in the media that Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire, the Catholic school attended by the children, was four blocks away from the ‘Dublin Mosque’ and the headquarters of the ‘Islamic Foundation of Ireland’ which had formerly been the Donore Presbyterian Church.

And no questions were asked about what this proximity to the largest mosque in the city might have had to the attack. Such questions, according to the government, are “disinformation”.

Bouchaker was only doing to Ireland’s children what the Dublin Mosque had done to a church.

One cannot fault the current Irish government for its Jihad over Israel. It’s really treating the Jews no worse than it treats the Irish. And if it expects Israel to lie down and die rather than stand up to Islamic terrorists that is the exact expectation that it (and not just it) has for Ireland.

And perhaps the Irish government is jealous that the Israelis refuse to follow in its footsteps.

The modern rebirths of Israel and Ireland were linked by common rebellions against British rule. Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel is the grandson of the Chief Rabbi of Ireland. His father, Chaim Herzog, Israel’s sixth president, was born in Belfast. His grandfather, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, was both an enthusiastic Irish nationalist and Zionist. Rabbi Herzog became known as the ‘Sinn Fein Rabbi’ despite Sinn Fein being founded by Arthur Griffith who hated the fairly small Jewish community in Ireland so much that he had cheered on the Limerick pogrom.

The ideological heirs of those who prided themselves on driving the Jews out of Limerick have welcomed in Limerick’s multiple mosques. Muslims are now the second largest religion in Limerick. And history shows it will only be a matter of time until the second will become the first.

Israel and Ireland as modern states arose from 19th century nationalist movements seeking to restore the glorious past of diaspora peoples. Animated by writers, artists, linguists and poets determined to revive what many saw as dead languages and the dead past, Zionism and Celtic nationalism seemed to have much in common. But the outcomes have been very different.

Half the Jewish diaspora lives in Israel while the vast majority of the Irish diaspora still lives abroad. Israel is a technological pioneer while Ireland serves as a Big Tech tax shelter. Israel has fought and won wars against Muslim invaders while Ireland shamefully kneels to them.

The revival of Israel is an object of pride to Jews around the world, but Ireland remains little more than a tourist stop with little about its state to take pride in as a modern day nation.

And most damningly, Israel’s birth rate is double that of the Irish birth rate.

Israel could very easily have ended up like Ireland: a kleptocracy run by crooked club socialists doling out just enough social welfare to keep the population voting for them, a cafe cultural establishment whose literary and linguistic experiments had soured into a club of worthless worthies, and plenty of history for scholars to look back on but no future to look forward to.

And if the Israelis hadn’t spent the last century fighting for their lives, maybe it would have.

If Israel had been living next door to some dying socialist republics with nothing to aspire to beyond wrangling about their share of EU subsidies, maybe it would have also become a failed experiment with Labor and Likud as its Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, Amos Oz as its Joyce, and people who don’t bother with the national language, but just want to move to Europe.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) the Jews were cursed or blessed with their enemies.

Mediocre decline was never an option for Israel. More than the Jews, it is their enemies who will not allow Zionism to die out. And so Israel is in yet another war for the Irish government to deplore. The Irish were allowed to stop fighting while the Jews can never have any respite.

And so paradoxically they can also never die out.

The Jews and the Irish are both a little mad, self-destructive and prone to endless infighting. We ought to understand each other better, but true to form we do not when we most need to.

Israel is what the Irish nationalists once dreamed of before they became small petty men.

The poet warriors who go off to die for their homeland are not historical figures in Israel, they are friends and neighbors. Everyday life is a struggle for survival against enemies out to kill you. Each child born is a triumph. Keeping a shop going while serving in the war is heroic. And so everyone takes a break from the infighting and pulls together because life means something.

Ireland once had that. It no longer does. And by the time it does again, it may be too late.

Where the Irish government allows Arab Muslim invaders to murder their children, the Israelis refuse. The Irish government calls this genocide: the Israelis call it survival. The Irish nationalists have sold out their homeland and their people, and resent those who won’t.

A generation hence the Israelis will have sons in their homeland while the sons of Ireland will be everywhere but in Dublin, mourning a homeland lost once again to foreign invaders and traitors.

Ireland is facing its own genocide. And few dare to talk about it. In Ireland, hating the Jews is safe, but opposing Muslims is a crime. Israel is not Ireland’s problem: instead it ought to be Ireland’s model. And yet accuse Israel of genocide and you’re a national treasure, but accuse the Irish government of genocide and you’ll face smear campaigns and criminal charges.

There’s a genocide problem in Ireland. The blood of Irish children stains a nation. Israel’s worst enemies are outside it, but Ireland’s worst enemies are inside its own government.

Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: Alternatives to Gymnasium and Grafted Etrogim

#286

Date and Place: 18 Adar II, 5670 (1910), Yafo

Recipient and Background: The offices of the Mizrachi Center in Frankfurt. This is a response to their letter with questions.

Body: [First I will respond] regarding the gymnasium (Gymnasium Herzliya, an influential irreligious high school in what became Tel Aviv). I do not see benefit from opposing it publicly, as long as it will be only negative opposition. In other words, we would first need to be able to present to the community a school that is equivalent to the gymnasium, so that the only difference between the schools will be that they break the covenant with Hashem and our school will hold with great strength the banner of the light of Hashem and His Torah. The Tachkemoni school, although I, thank G-d, have great regard for it and its leaders, still cannot compete with the gymnasium in several cultural topics. Therefore, we have to be somewhat patient and work unceasingly for the school’s improvement, as we have begun to do, until it is able to provide all that those who choose the gymnasium yearn for. Then we can boldly proclaim that there is no difference between Tachkemoni or our gymnasium and between their gymnasium, other than that the latter uproots our nation’s tree of life, i.e., belief, from the hearts of its students, whereas the former crowns itself in the honor of belief. Then our campaign’s words will be heard. We must immediately prepare our strength for this holy battle, because there is endless benefit from each moment we can do this earlier.

The matter of etrogim is very complicated as I explained in “Etz Hadar.” If we make a general advertisement for the etrogim of Eretz Yisrael without distinction, it will not promote the proper fulfillment of the mitzva because there are very many (actually a great majority of the market from Eretz Yisrael), grafted etrogim from non-Jewish orchards in Eretz Yisrael. Kosher etrogim are available only from a small number of our brothers from the moshavot, which are under rabbinical supervision to ensure they are free from grafting. If it would be possible to publicize that not any etrog from Eretz Yisrael is desirable but only the supervised ones from our brothers from the moshavot, then we would attain the goal of strengthening the purity of the mitzva at a time that there is concern that it will unfortunately be lacking because of the many grafted etrogim.

Furthermore, it does not suffice to publicize [that not all etrogimfrom Eretz Yisrael are kosher] but to also tell all that the consensus of leading rabbis has always been that it is better to spend a lot of money for an etrog that does not look beautiful externally but is unquestionably not grafted than to buy a beautiful grafted etrog. If this truth is publicized, then the matter of kosher etrogim will be strengthened along with the development of the Jewish community of Eretz Yisrael, as Jews will plant etrog orchards when they see that people will buy their produce.

This ongoing work needs constant activity. I have already seen a public advertisement to encourage people to plant kosher etrog orchards and also let our brethren in the Diaspora know the truth about this dear mitzva, which has been slipping from Jewish hands due to the laxness in encouraging Jews to plant their fields with etrogim. I have just held up on publicizing this encouragement because this year is Shemitta, and it is definitely wrong to encourage a project that includes a lot of agricultural work.

As far as buying supervised etrogim during this Shemitta year, certainly the etrogim are not worse than wine and other produce of the Holy Land, regarding which we are compelled to rely on the leniency of selling the land, thus relying on the opinion that Shemitta does not apply to that which is owned by non-Jews. On the other hand, I will not take steps to expand marketing during the Shemitta year. It is more proper to begin with administrative work, which will come to fruition in future years. We are interested in things that are of value in the longer scheme of eternity, not within hours or years.